Broken Promise
by PansyFlower
Summary: Cato and Clove. Two ruthless killers-it seems. But everything changes when they find each other. Together there even stronger. They are invincible. Inseperable. Determined to protect each other from the world they live in. But what if this promise can be held. What if the odds aren t in their favour? Totally team Clato!
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer**: I don´t own the Hunger Games otherwise they surely would be all about Cato

**Author´s note**: This is my first Fanfiction so please be nice... Critics are welcome. I also might want to add that English isn´t my mother toungue so there might be some errors concerning grammar... Otherwise enjoy reading my story :D

Chapter 1:

"Clove, I´m so sorry! Please wait… honey I love only you!" Riley cried out. For some strange reason the only thing I could think of at this moment was laughing out loud. And even for me that was a very strange response to finding you boyfriend kissing another, although of course I never really loved him - our relationship was the result of my parents´ matchmaking. Still it hurt my pride and I didn´t plan on letting him get away that easy. So instead of throwing a tantrum or starting to cry as he might have suspected, I lunged forwards and used all the strength I could muster – which is a considerable amount - to hit him right in the face. I heard a satisfying breaking sound from his nose and him cursing under his breath. I allowed myself a little smirk before I bent forwards and hissed into his ear " Never mess with me". Morgan, the girl he had only just kissed, stood a few metres away from us – shivering – pathetic. She looked like me as if I was a mad girl and actually that´s the way a lot of people see me. I couldn´t care less. But still... a thought began to form in my mind. My parents both were peacekeepers and they expected me to follow their lead ... but maybe I could persuade them...

It had to work. I had always dreamed of the Hunger Games as a lot of people in my district did. District two people have always been known for their unbreakable will and their willingness to fight and I followed that tradition. It was as if I had been born to win the Hunger Games.

When I finally came back to reality I saw Riley recovering, burning for revenge. But instead of humiliating him for a second time I turned on my heel and ran back home. The only thing I could think about was going to live in the training center and winning the Hunger Games. When I arrived at home panting I wasted no time telling my parents what I had in mind. I would do it no matter what they said but firstly it was better, at least at that moment, not to completely break with the only people who loved me and secondly the center rarely accepted runaways.

But my fears proved to be unnecessary. My parents were more willing than I thought to send me to the academy and after a few arguments like "Your only fourteen after all" or "But what about your future as a peacekeeper" they finally agreed to sign me in next thing tomorrow morning.

After my mom had gone to bed my dad came to my room and to my surprise said:" I always knew you were victor material. Go make our family proud." He quickly hugged me and then left the room, obviously embarrassed by his outburst of emotions. This was district two after all. Finding love here isn´t more likely than finding a shark sitting in your hot tub.

After a sleepless night the next morning came far too soon. There weren´t any people I had to say goodbye to except for my parents. Nobody at my school ever liked me but hated me for my guts. They preferred girly girls there. Only the thought of those stupid pathetic children enraged me so much that I didn´t want anything more than to grab my favourite knife and slit their throats open. One after the other.

But actually the only thing that had kept me from killing them all these years were my knives. Okay that might sound a little strange. I should probably say anger release during knife practice. I never told anyone about it since it was highly criminal – only prospective tributes from the training centre were allowed to train with weapons – but I didn´t give damn. One of the good things about having peacekeepers for parents is that that I had the whole house and surrounding garden to myself, since they were away nearly all the year. In the last three years I had changed our shed into my personal training centre where I had perfected my knife skills and from time to time was practicing with my father´s axes – my big idol is district 7 victor Johanna Mason.

One year later:

My first year at the training centre was hard but the satisfaction it gave me was worth it. All the girls in my group feared me and nobody dared asking me something. Unfortunately the training groups were separated by gender and none of these girlies was anywhere near to being a worthy opponent for me. So one day while I was practicing one of my weaker sets of weapons – spear throwing, my trainer Lyme lead me into a quiet corner. Apparently they finally figured out what to do with me – the girl that defeated 18- years olds without using more than her bare hands – they sent me to train with the guys. I was delighted – this could only improve my chances to win the game and that was all that mattered to me now. I hadn´t written to my parents once since I came here and I didn´t miss my old life at all. Finally I could be who I was- even if that meant being a demonic killer. I had found my destiny.

Lyme escorted me to the gym on the opposite site of the campus, where the males exercised. She introduced me to my new trainer – Brutus, who had won the Hunger Games around 20 years ago. He still was a fighter which I had to learn painfully only seconds later when his fist crashed my skull out of nowhere. I heard somebody chuckle. I turned around furiously. Nobody dared laughing at Clove Sevina. I scanned the row of boys quickly. All still looked impressed by me being the first girl ever to enter this gym. All except for... When I met his eyes I had to gasp. He was the most handsome and most muscular boy I had ever laid eyes on. But when I saw his grin getting wider my anger began to boil again. Apparently he thought me being sent here was a big mistake. Well he would learn his lesson. I turned back to Brutus who stood only a few feet away still chuckling. "Always be on... ". Before he could even finish the sentence my foot had landed between his legs. I used the time he needed to recover to quickly take two of the knives I always carried with me out of the belt hidden under my shirt. Before Brutus could even attempt to fight back I pinned his shirt to the wall. He would have to hang out there a little. Then I turned to the big blonde boy who had laughed at me. I threw my remaining knife faster than he could comprehend the situation. Just as I had planned it landed just inches away from his most treasured body part. Now it was his turn to gasp and I couldn´t help but smirk a little.

He didn´t look too angry, rather impressed and by the way the others looked at him I could tell that none of them had achieved that. I had gained the respect of the guy. After everybody had been dismissed by a still distressed looking Brutus he waited for me in front of the gym. "Your a wild one he sweetie?" I nearly gagged. Sweetie? Even my father has stopped calling me that at the age of three. Because I was anything BUT sweet.

I turned around to him my knife already ready in my hand. To my surprise he lunged at me before I could throw it and I was only able to dodge him by letting myself fall onto the ground. I quickly got up but it was too late and I could see him towering over me. "By the way I´m Cato. Cato Woods." "Well now I know what to write on your tomb" I said through gritted teeth although I wasn´t half as confident as I sounded. Actually his name rang a bell. He was THE champion of our academy. Better than any of the other boys and surely better than all the pathetic girls I had to deal with. But I still had an ace ready. I reached into my hair and hidden in my apparently untidy hair was a carefully hidden knife which I now grabbed and pointed at his throat. "Don´t mess with me." "Well your definitely the first one not to shiver with fear in this position". Indeed it was a very compromising situation him kneeling over me. I could feel his breath coming more ragged now, having my knife pointed at his throat. He still didn´t seem nervous. I growled. What was it about this boy that made me not hurt him although I had the opportunity and every reason to? I made the mistake to look into his brilliant blue eyes looking like the sky, like my personal heaven. What was happening to me? I could only hate this guy who loved at me, attacked me and was now playing games with me. Still his self-confident attitude, the fact that he wasn´t afraid of me...

Before I could help it the words " It´s Clove not sweetie" escaped my lips. To overplay this moment I used his temporary confusion, freed myself and ran towards the big fountain to bring some space between me and that devil in person. He was faster than I had thought and reached me just before I had reached the fountain. "Care for a waterfight Clover?" And with that he picked me up as if I weighed 1 pound instead of 100 ad threw me into the fountain. Enraged by him using that stupid nickname I managed to pull him over the edge into the fountain as well.

I pushed him under the water. When he came up again I screamed "It´s Clove not sweetie not Clover..!" He rather seemed delighted by my anger issues judging by the smirk spreading on his face. "Okay Clovey so you don´t like people making fun out of your name." And then he surprised by pulling me into his big muscular arms. It felt so good but I couldn´t let the sensation overflow. Although my heart seemed to explode I freed myself to look into his eyes. They weren´t hard and sarcastic as they had been before but soft and caring. Could that be? What could I possibly have done to win that beautiful boy over? So instead of saying something I just looked at him uncertain about what would happen next. But he seemed as taken aback by his own emotions as I was. Then he cleared his throat but I stopped whatever he wanted to tell me by kissing him straight on the lips.

**So did you like it? I hope so! Please review, tell me what you´d like to happen and motivate me to keep going! xxx **


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer**: I still don´t own the Hunger Games including all characters... but I´m working on it :D

**Hey Guys I know it hasn´t been that long since I posted this but I´d really love some reviews...** **Well here comes chapter 2.**

**Chapter 2:**

It was the most wonderful thing I had ever felt. His lips were so soft on mine and as I opened my eyes I could see his beautiful blue eyes filled with emotions. A surge of pride overflowed me as I noticed that all these emotions probably were reserved for me. That he would never look at anybody else that way. He groaned and pulled me deeper into the kiss. I replied roughly and we kept on kissing several minutes. Or were it mere seconds? An hour? I had completely lost track of time.

We were both panting when our lips finally parted and he gave me a crooked smile. " Well little one... you like it rough then." He said smirking. Little one? Ok fine my 5´4´´ weren´t exactly huge in comparison to his 6´3´´ feet... But this time I kept my anger to myself and just focused on the beautiful boy that I had only met today but already felt myself falling more and more for. "You´re certainly like no one else I´ve ever kissed. Better... definitely." A smile played around his lips but than another thought came into his mind and the grin faded. "So... have you kissed many boys before". "Jealous fattie?" I retorted. This fitted as well... in comparison. Of course in reality Cato was no way near fat but extremely muscular and bulgy and it wasn´t only the comparison to my 120 pounds that made him look like he had the size of a closet on legs.

"Fattie?" He snorted incredulously. "And I thought you could do better. Well but if you really want to know..." His voice became more serious at that point, "actually I´m not sure what I´m feeling. I´ve never felt for someone as I feel for you which is definitely strange since I know you for about 10 hours but... Clove you have guts, you are tough, you are beautiful, tempting and a real fighter. You´re one in a million and even though it seems unbelievable... I think I ... l...ike you." I could see how embarrassing it was to him to talk over these emotions. I understood him very well because it was the same for me. If I had ever thought I had loved Riley I was a fool. What I felt for him is nothing in comparison to what I feel for Cato... really nothing. But I just said quickly "I think I love you too."

With Cato at my side I became even more confident and focused. Of course only until training was over. Than Cato would take me somewhere: hiking in the mountains, swimming at the beach, having dinner at a restaurant and then watching the sunset... Those days were the happiest of my live. Even the fact that our district had lost the 73. Hunger Games with both of our tributes dying in the bloodbath couldn´t affect my mood.

But as time passed things at training were beginning to go on different paths. It was time to decide who´d volunteer for the next games. The thing was that both Cato and I were favourites to go. He was 18 and also the best student the academy had ever had. He was bound to go. It was a little different with me. I was only 17 and 17-years old never volunteered. But I had always had a thing for firsts hadn´t I: first child of a peacekeeper to be a tribute, first girl to train with the boys, first girl to ever win in hand-to-hand-combat against Cato Woods (although that was only because I caught him of guard by kissing him during the fight)... I should have known that if someone made it a 17-years old volunteer it would be me. Of course it was true that I was better than any 18 years old girl the academy could offer and that I probably would be able to win the games... Emphasis on would though. How could I win though if I wanted nothing as badly as for Cato to come back?

Around 2 months before the actual reaping a new face showed up at training. When I saw him walking through the door I was more tempted than I ever had been to kill. My fingers were already twitching, eager to grab a knife and sent it through that Loser´s heart. Riley´s gaze lingered on me just long enough to see Cato who had felt my tension laying an arm around me and looking at me questioningly. It was enough to make Riley positively afraid. I probably would too if I stood in front of a girl shooting one of her famous death glares at me and behind her a 200 pound bodybuilder obviously ready to fight. It was Cato´s touch that brought me back to reality though. The rage I had felt towards Riley was just a weak shadow, cursing the time I had wasted being really angry with him. Now I only felt pity for him. He had never been a fighter – neither physically nor mentally. He wouldn´t stand a chance against and most certainly not against Cato. I relaxed and whispered " I´ll explain later." Riley obviously trying to regain his composure said in a clearly high-pitched voice: "So... what are you doing here Clove? Aren´t you still considering yourself a female?" And again a dumb thing to say. Still I felt strangely unmoved by his comment but before I could turn away Cato had already jumped on him "Gotta problem with my girl idiot? She´s here for a reason – you´ll find out soon enough. Don´t mess with us.", he hissed. As if to prove his words Brutus came over to us, cleared his throat and announced that we´d do group circle training today, meaning that everyone had to absolve all stations and that with the others looking. I was positively beaming – not only had Cato stood up for me and defended me but Riley was sure to be humiliated too. It seemed as if he had just thought the same because a look of terror strove his face. Cato stood next to me, smirking. "Don´t mess up Cato." I whispered. "I never do. Show ´em what you got babe. Throw straight" Cato replied. "I always do." We both chuckled. It was our little ritual when we had an important test ahead. And humiliating Riley as well as demonstrating our superiority clearly was important.

We started at bow and arrows. Cato, looking grumpily was the first to go. Archery is his weakest set of weapons and he misses the bull´s eye by several inches. Riley did reasonably well for probably shooting for the first time and we both tensed. When it was my turn I focused more than I ever had before on this shitty weapon, that felt so wrong in comparison to my knives. I was better than Cato but – and that made me furious – worse than Riley. This worked as a giant ego-boost on him because when I passed him, cursing under my breath he laughed and said " Seems as if you aren´t as good as you think you are." That was enough. Fortunately the next station was axes and while Cato was mediocre, Riley hardly managed to lift the weapon and only managed to throw it half the way to the target. I smirked and grabbed an especially dangerous looking axe. Thanks to my experience I knew exactly that it wouldn´t be as heavy as it looked and when I threw it at the target it stuck right in the centre. To my enormous satisfaction I heard gasping noises from behind me and Cato chuckling mildly. Next station was swords and of course Cato exceeded. He tore the dummy into tiny pieces and earned himself a very generous compliment by Brutus. When he walked past Riley he hissed "This is what I´ll do to you." He positioned himself next to me and I playfully patted his back. "Well done Gladiator." He chuckled and absentmindedly stroke my back. Spears, trident and slingshot went by without any noticeable success by Riley, who had become as white as a ghost and fearfully looked from one to the other. The last station was knife throwing and I prepared myself for my great show. Everybody knew what was about to come and they respectfully made place for me. Cato pushed me forwards and I armed myself with around half a dozen throwing knives. Then I turned to the three dummies in front of me and focused on the one farthest away. I grabbed a knife and threw it exactly at the heart while it was still flying I had already aimed another for the head and was swirling around, turning to the next one. I pierced him with two knives in a fluent movement and turned to my audience. I saw Riley standing there with his mouth open staring at me in disbelief and all the others looking impressed once again. But the only face that mattered was Cato´s looking proud and grinning widely, showing me a thumbs-up. I fished a cotton piece out of my bag, blindfolded myself and turned to the last remaining dummy. Carefully I positioned my knives in my hands and first threw one at his head and only a split second later aimed for his heart with the other one. I removed the fold to examine my work and smirked satisfied – 6 bull´s eyes. Brutus looked impressed and said something about wanting to talk to me tomorrow afternoon but I didn´t care. I strode over to Cato who pulled me into a deep hug and slowly carried me out of the centre.

**Pleeeaaase review everyone! I´m happy about every response, criticism included! I hope you like it though :D**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer:** Hunger Games belongs to Suzanne Collins.

**_Hey :) This really is a short chapter but there´s a lot of drama going on so I hope you like it anyway... Well as alway I beg you to _****_review_****_ because it´s pretty hard to put so much efford into a story and not get any feedback... _**

Chapter 3:

He lead me all the way through the city centre still laughing at Riley´s terrified face and also laughing at me for having been his girlfriend – he stopped that after I hit him in his ribcase pretty hard. I kept asking him where we were heading but he wouldn´t answer so I walked next to him sulking and not listening to anything he´d say. After half an hour of walking - somewhere in the outskirts of town - I had enough: "This is it. I won´t go any further if you don´t tell me where we´re going." "Believe me it´s worth it. You wouldn´t want to miss what I´m about to show you." He suddenly took a sharp left, entering the forest, and I nearly stumbled into him. "What the hell...". "This way Clove."

After about 10 minutes walking through the woods we suddenly came across a clearing. I gasped – The whole floor was covered with a mixture of wild-growing grass and the most beautiful flowers I had ever seen. In the middle of the meadow was a lake with ducks and swans swimming around and water roses covering the surface. It seemed like a place taken straight from a fairytale, so different from the harsh surrounding forest and even more so from the industrialized city centre where you could hardly find a tree let alone a lake or a park.

Cato seemed satisfied by my reaction and said in a mocking tone: " So was the walk worth it?" I was too taken aback by the beauty of this place. I had never thought Cato to be a romantic person, neither had I counted myself one... I hated all this girly stuff. But this place... It was pure magic.

So instead of answering I slung my hands around Cato and began kissing him roughly. He smiled against my lips. "I´m glad you like it little one." We ended up in huddled mass lying on the forest floor, my head on Cato´s breast and his hand stroking carefully through my hair. I wished I could lie there forever, with him at my side. When I was with Cato, all my anger seemed to disappear. He was the only one who´s presence comforted me, the only one that made me feel safe.

Suddenly he gently pushed my head of his chest and stood up. I looked at him panicking. What was this supposed to mean? He went over to his bag and took a little box out of it. My heart skipped a beat. He wasn´t going to propose to me was he? I could feel the blood pumping through my veins making sure my face was as red as a tomato. He came back to me and gave me the box in silence, his beautiful sky-blue eyes always on me. I took the box with a trembling hand unable to unlock my eyes out of his gaze. Oh how I loved his eyes. These eyes that were so full of love, full of care. These eyes that looked at me in a way no one else ever would. I had no one in this world who loved me as Cato did and as I loved him. Sure my parents did love me in a certain way but they were too stiff and too unemotional to ever really care for me. I knew that he was my one and only, my soulmate, my significant other, as much as I hated these words on normal days.

Finally I managed to open the box and glance into it. It wasn´t a diamond ring. It was a bracelet. A bracelet with the most beautiful heart-shaped pendant, made from silver and having a huge ornamented C imprinted on both sides. I thought I was going to cry. I never cried – Not when my Grandmother died, not when this one stupid boy from my school punched me on the forehead – three stitches, I´m not sure whether he´s recovered yet – so why cry now? "Open it.", Cato whispered. Inside were two photographs. One was taken when we tried to bake a cake for his mother´s birthday, which ended with us throwing eggs, flower and anything else we could find at each other – what also explains our terrible looks but brightly smiling faces – and buying a cake from the local bakery. The second one showed me sleeping peacefully in his arms, a happy expression on my face and him kissing me on the forehead. "I love you and I always will.", Cato said softly though his eyes seemed cofusingly sad .

A single tear ran down my cheek.

When I trusted myself enough to dare speaking again I asked a bit hoarsely: "So what is all that for?" Cato´s eyes locked into mine, his grin fading a little. "Clove the reaping is in two weeks and I just want to spent as much time with you as possible and..." "Wait wait wait a second... The reaping? You don´t mean you´re still going to..." I mouthed the word volunteer. How could I have forgotten? Of course I knew. I always had known. He was the best student our academy had ever had. I was crazy if I thought they would spare his life just because he´s... emotionally involved with someone. Cato´s brow furrowed at my horrified expression "But you must have known..." "Of course I knew you damn idiot. But hope dies last that´s what you always say right? How can they.. How can you? Leave me here praying for your live every second of your absence? Broken beyond repair if you die? And what if you win? Do you expect me to be all oozy-coozy and happy about your victory, after you had risked everything including my mental health to win these stupid games? There must be a way to prevent this! You could just... I don´t know... run away. WE could run away. I know we could do it. We are the best trainees ever. We could survive. If we only stuck together." I had started punching him in my rage as if that would make him listen to me. His face had turned into a hard masquerade.

"Listen. I want to go. I have trained my entire life for these games. I´ve been throwing spears since I´m seven. I can´t just give it all up for a goddamn girl..." "That´s what your father told you, right? Please tell me you don´t mean it." I looked at him begging but his gaze was hard as steel and cold as ice. "I don´t need my father to tell me anything. And I don´t need you telling me what to do either. I´m going and that´s it."

All the happiness that I had felt mere minutes ago had vanished and left a huge pit of rage. Out of instinct I took one of my knives and threw it at a duck waggling around near the lake. "So that´s it Cato? You´re going to volunteer and I´ll never see you again." He just gazed at me harshly and said: "I have wasted too much time on this romance anyway. Everybody knows Careers don´t love. And neither do I. Not you and nobody else." That was enough. One other word and I would have broken into tears. I looked into his face one last time but I couldn´t find any hint of regret in there. There was a determination in his eyes that I had never seen before, not even during training. He looked at me as if I was his worst enemy, completely emotionless, and I think it was this indifference, the fact that he had just wiped away all the happy moments we had shared, that shattered my heart into pieces.

I had never thought a broken heart would hurt like this. I felt as if a part of me, that was so full of emotions before that I had felt I could float like a balloon in the sky had suddenly shrunken to the size of a pea. I slapped him hard across the face – apparently violence was my preferred answer to emotional humiliation - spun around and ran. Ran as fast as my feet would carry me. Just away from him and all the terrible things he had said.

**Sooo I hope you liked it... And just another reminder pleeeaaaaseee review :) special thanks to oxmadxo and the two guests for encouraging me! Thanks a lot **


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